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Start the new year by cleaning out long-postponed tasks

kateoneill Pro says:

My morning RTM routine involves marking as "complete" any tasks that I did actually complete the day prior, but postponing the rest. This means that some tasks that don't grab my attention can end up deferred for days, weeks, and yes, sometimes even months. But I have two Smart Lists to help me address this:

one called "ORLY?" with
postponed:"> 5" AND priority:1
so that I can see any supposedly high-priority items I've been procrastinating on and either handle immediately or determine true next steps for

and one called "Clutter!" with
postponed:"> [whatever the highest number that yields results is]"
which allows me to go in periodically and clear out ALL old tasks, and then revise the smart list to a smaller number so that it continually tightens my view on my overall tasks.

Hoping for productive nirvana in 2012 and beyond!

Posted at 4:35pm on January 10, 2012

bordaigorl Pro says:

I also set up a smartlist called "ZzZ" of tasks I added long time ago and probably I forgot about:

(NOT addedWithin:"2 month of today") AND status:incomplete AND due:never AND priority:none

Periodically I skim through it and "promote" some of the tasks by adding a due date or simply delete obsolete ones.

I find it useful also for the following reason: sometimes there's something that starts bugging me (i.e. buy that awesome useless gadget...do it now!) but I know it has no priority and it probably seems a nice idea only because I am not considering the big picture. Putting this "obsession" in a task with low priority and maybe no due time allows me to relax and stop thinking about it. If it turns out it was actually a good idea, at some point I would promote it from the ZzZ list and maybe...actually do it!

Posted 1 year ago

emily (Remember The Milk) says:

Hi kateoneill,

I just wanted to let you know that you're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner. We've upgraded your Remember The Milk account to have a free year of Pro. :)

Posted 1 year ago

kateoneill Pro says:

Thanks Emily!

Posted 1 year ago

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